Chapter 20

“Gods, I am so tired,” Vall sighed as she slumped into her chair. “Who cares about hydraulics, and generators, and fusion whatever-it-is, anyway?”

“I’m learning about fabrication,” Ket said brightly. “Polymers, metal alloys; it’s all wonderful things to learn about!”

Pel stood at the food replicator, conversing with it about our lunch order. “Scheherazade has been stuffing my head like a festival goose with information on computer systems.” She retrieved her tray and brought it to our table.

“It’s amazing what a month of forced learning can do,” I said with a laugh. We had sat down to a full day of testing, answering written questions and performing tasks with items the depot’s robots had provided us. We were each assigned lessons based on the outcome of our tests.

Vall had shown skill at operating vehicles, and the learning involved how they worked, not just how to use them. Ket showed promise as an artificer, skilled at building and repairing machines and vehicles. Pel was learning about the computers – thinking machines – that controlled nearly every machine and vehicle, and that could store astounding amounts of information.

My lessons were more about the theories behind all of these wonderful things, rather than in their application. I had also been studying the history of the people who came to this world more than a thousand turnings, or years, ago. This world was settled by the use of a portal, a gate between worlds. I didn’t really understand what a dimension was, but suffice it to say the humans had come here from another world very much like this one.

The elves, dragons, and orcs all came through other portals, and those portals had admitted magic to this world. None of these races had built the portals; they were ancient machines built by an unknown race. Even their method of operation and their source of power were wholly unknown. The humans had only found their own portal, and did not discover the others until the magical races appeared.

At first, the races existed peacefully, but soon war broke out over disagreements about land and other resources. The humans especially mistrusted spellcasters and other magic users, and the elves thought the humans to be immature and impulsive. The dragons were intent on being left to their own devices, and the orcs wanted the land for themselves.

Each faction immediately thought of cutting off the source of supplies and reinforcements to the others, and so the portals became important things to guard and attack. Entire battles were waged over them, and they were all finally destroyed, trapping the warring factions on this world. In the end, the factions, their numbers depleted by years of war, spread themselves across this world.

The depot here was started by one of the human groups, but they were slaughtered by a magical contagion. Scheherazade was operational by then, and she directed the construction of the facility, and the building of the ships, vehicles and robots that resided here. For all of her knowledge, the AI wasn’t able to formulate stratagems to bring the humans back; all who knew of her existence had perished.

The years passed, and the otherworldly races slowly learned to live peaceably with each other, and with the halfings and other races who were native to this world. They learned that they could all produce children together, though these offspring were not often accepted by their purebred relatives. Still, life went on, and magic spread widely, and the humans learned to use it, though not nearly as well as the magical races.

Then, Pel’s grandfather had found an entrance to the depot, and he befriended the AI, telling her of another redoubt that he had discovered and made into his home. Using the technology he found there, he was able to find this depot. He wrote a book in the ancient human language, and passed it to Pel’s father, who gave it to Pel.

I ordered my own meal, and sat at the table to eat. “I still haven’t divined an answer about the orcs,” I said.

“From what you’ve said, the war was pretty bad. The orcs suffered as much as anyone, and the troublemakers are from tribes I’ve never heard of,” Vall replied.

“Maybe they discovered another portal,” Ket suggested. “Of course, that wouldn’t explain why the magic is still dying here.”

“Maybe their home realm isn’t magical,” Pel gestured with her fork. “They can use magic, but so can humans, halflings, and others.”

“They have another portal,” a voice said from the doorway. We turned to look as Nilyn walked in. Scheherazade had opposed the dragon’s presence, but the four of us had finally convinced her to let the wounded dragon stay. She stepped over to the food processor and retrieved her tray, and then sat down next to me.

“How do you know?” Vall gave her a look, but it was more curiosity than annoyance at her proximity to me.

“How else do we account for the appearance of whole new tribes?” Nilyn said evenly.

“They do breed quickly,” Pel put in. “Maybe that is the reason.”

“If they do have a portal to their old home, that would be dangerous for us all. They have even fought with the older orc tribes who, for the most part, have been peaceable.”

“All of this is speculation,” Vall continued. “The only ways to find out are to ask them, or find the portal ourselves.”

“I doubt they will tell us,” I replied. “And, they are surely guarding it closely. How do we find it?”

“We can use the ships.” Vall looked at me. “The computers fly them; all we have to do is tell them where we wish to go.”

My stomach knotted at the prospect of leaving the ground. As I had learned, the ships could actually leave this world entirely and enter the great void that surrounded it. There were other vehicles that could fly, too, but only within our world’s atmosphere.

“Why not use the other flyers?” Ket asked Vall.

“The ships fly much higher and faster, they have better weapons, and they are better armored.”

“The portals could be hidden, either by magic, or by mundane means,” Nilyn observed.

Vall shrugged. “We would have to try it and see what we find. I have studied much about the ships’ capabilities, but there is still so much that I don’t truly understand.”

“Even when we do understand, what will the five of us do about it?” I looked at Nilyn. “You’re one of the most affected by magic; what do you think?”

“Unless we find a way to reverse the decline, or open a portal to my ancestors’ realm, I will die. Beyond that, we will need more people to aid us, even with the wondrous things made and stored here.”

“Where do we find the people?” Pel sat back in her chair, one of several made for her by Ket. “We had to be tested to find our skills. Unless we test them first...” Her eyes widened.

“Yes!” Vall leaned forward. “We can contact people we trust, although,” she glanced at me, “everyone I trust is here.”

“Oh, I have a few people we can speak with, I think,” Nilyn said dryly.

“Such as?” Ket looked at her with thinly veiled suspicion.

“I think Ornthalas knows them; Lirimaer, Draen, and Dreev.”

I stared at Nilyn. “Draen?! He hates me, and he wanted to kill Vall!”

“I know,” Nilyn sighed. “He’s a stiff-necked, arrogant elf, to be sure. He has fought the orcs for so long until that’s all he knows. But, he and his hunters are skilled warriors, and there are a hundred of them. In the same way, Lirimaer has a score of hunters, many of them of mixed blood. Likewise, Mog has fifty warriors under her command.”

“I don’t know Mog,” Vall looked at Nilyn in puzzlement.